The Wren in the Holly Library

"I personally liked this book. I listened to the audiobook and normally fantasy is hard for me to follow with audio, but I really enjoyed this. It was easy to follow and understand which was nice"

"Love love love this book! Why aren’t more fantasy lovers talking about it?"

"DNF after 20%. There was nothing that pulled me in and it became a chore to read it. "

"When a monster and a thief make an unlikely pair, beauty may be able to tame the beast. <br/><br/>New York City collapsed after the monsters emerged and caused a war against the humans. After the Monster Treaty, the humans, paranormal, and magical creatures agree on a truce, although the humans get the raw end of the deal. <br/><br/>Kierse grew up without a mother and was passed around for years until she was taken in and taught how to steal to survive in this new version of the city. She was one of the best thieves and her boss offered her a big job that would give her the money to pay bills and get decent food for a few months for herself and her found family. Little did Kierse know who she was stealing from and what he was capable of when she was caught red-handed by the owner of the infamous Holly Library. A monster named Graves saw potential in this "human" and he needed someone with her talents of thievery so they strike a deal. <br/><br/>He trains her for an even bigger job that would pay her enough that she and her friends never have to worry about rent or food again. The problem is the job itself, but she's never backed down to a challenge. She had no idea what she was getting herself into, and Graves wasn't prepared for who she was, what she was, and what she would mean to him. <br/><br/><i>"A chuisle mo chroí" (pulse of my heart)</i><br/><br/>This story has Celtic lore, trolls, vampires, fae, druids, warlocks, magical artifacts, action, banter, and a bit of spice. <br/><br/>I don’t know why this has such a low rating. I loved it and hated to stop reading it to go to sleep. I’m looking forward to book two The Robin on the Oak Throne coming in June 2025<br/><br/>"

"Started slow. I wasn’t sure if I was going to continue but I actually ended up enjoying the last 45% of the book."

"The writing wasn’t the best. Characters would be in a room, then suddenly they’d come back in the room after it never being said that they left in the first place. Pieces of key information were missing. Character relationships were thrown at you. The conflict wasn’t even slightly the conflict. Honestly, I kind of wish I didn’t finish it."

"This book put me into a reading rut thinking I was going insane. The beginning of the book had characters popping in randomly to conversations when they previously weren’t there, sentence structure was all over the place, it was very hard to understand what was going on. The plot of the story has merit, but would require a more competent author. Could Linde steal anymore of SJ MAAS’ writing? I swear every character or object had a name that was already used in the MAAS fandom. Very disappointed.. "

"2.5 rounded up. I'm usually a sucker for a beauty and the beast retelling, but this book needed an editor - there were places I was jarred out of the story by the writing. And I was enjoying it more before all of the ending twists - I would have liked it more had it been self-contained."

"Not normally my style of book. However I thoroughly enjoyed it. It gave me Beauty and the Beast vibes. I hope she comes out with more soon. "